Always thank your board members by name

• Published date: 01 May 2017
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/ban.30460
• Date: 01 May 2017

May 2017 • Volume 33, Number 9 3

DOI 10.1002/ban© 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company • All rights reserved

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Always thank your board members

by name

If a board member has done some-

thing special to help your organiza-

tion, be sure to recognize her. Here

are some options:

• Send a personal thank-you letter.

• Send a note of appreciation to

the board member’s employer.

• Mention the board member’s con-

tribution at the next board meeting.

• Single the board member out on

your website or in your organization’s

publication. ■

Policy can be used

to freshen up the board

Boards that do not have term limits

can stagnate from the inside. They

have a tendency to develop a culture

that is resistant to change and can

easily be dominated by a few long-term

board members. This can be problem-

atic for the organization because it can

struggle to attract new board members

and secure a viable future for the orga-

nization and its clients.

A board that finds itself in such a

state should focus on development of

governance policy. The board and its

CEO need to spend time on difficult

conversations about the board’s role,

the mission and the work the board

should be doing.

At a minimum, a board needs poli-

cies in the following areas in order to

keep itself fresh and engaged in the

nonprofit’s mission in a way that is

built for the long haul:

• A job description for board

members.

• Job descriptions for board

committees.

• A list of tasks for which the

board is responsible, including:

• CEO hiring and termination

• CEO evaluation

• Board member recruitment

• Planning

• Fundraising

• The mission and vision of the

organization

• Finances

• Advocacy

• An annual board work calendar. ■

Know your place

in the pecking order

As CEO, always keep this in mind:

“The board is the board, and the CEO

is not.”

The nonprofit executive who fails

to remember this will often learn a

lesson the hard way when the board

removes him from his position.

One reason this can be a diffi-

cult lesson for the nonprofit CEO to

learn: The executive director tends

to be an action-oriented individual.

Mix that personality type with a

board that is slow or hesitant to

make decisions, approve changes or

just plain contrary, and you often

end up with an executive director

who gets ahead of himself and tries

to lead.

That is when trouble starts. So, do

your job as CEO and always remem-

ber to keep your board in its proper

place in the chain of command. ■